48th Ekamra Walks: Foreign visitors make sizeable presence

Bhubaneswar: The Ekamra Walks, only guided heritage tour of Temple City, Bhubaneswar has become so popular among the visitors, especially the foreigners that today on the occasion of 48th Ekamra Walks, out of 50 walkers 25 came from Australia, USA and France.
It can be mentioned here that of the total 2,500 visitors coming to Ekamra Walks’48 editions so far, foreigners would be more than 300 coming from 24 different nations during the course of time. And interestingly, social media and references from friends and the media highlights including the featuring of the heritage walk in the Internet has inspired the tourists to come to Old Town area in the historic Bhubaneswar city and enjoy the tour.
Today’s the team of 14 Australians. There were also five French citizens, who were in India to participate in the Pushkar Fair. Earlier they came to India twice, but they liked the temples of Bhubaneswar very much.
David Rosenheim and Jackie Rosenheim came from California, US with their sons Oliver and Judah. They are very much happy to explore and know about the rich temple traditions of the Old City and tomorrow also likely to continue exploring the city.
David Rosenheim said “we are extremely lucky to be part of Ekamra Walks as it provided an insight into the rich temple building architecture and style of the Kalingan era. I am really happy that many temples are so well preserved.’’

SARI TEMPLE EXCAVATION SITE:
The foreign tourists were very much attracted towards the beautiful Sari Temple and its excavation site nearby as the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). They spent more time on the campus of the temple, which comes along the old Sanskrit college road on the bank of Bindusagar lake.
It can be mentioned here that the ASI experts have excavated a portion of the temple first towards the end of 2014 and then it continued and the repair work also started showcasing the traditional temple building style with organic material as in the past there was no use of cementing materials. The Sari temple belongs to 12th Century AD.
KIDS’ DAY OUT
The local kids were four in number today and they also made friendship with the two American siblings and they enjoyed the walk very much. Rudra, the local kid from Old town, who also belongs to a servitor’s family, said “I am happy to find new friends through Ekamra Walks and I wish I would continue my participation on every Sunday morning.’’
The visitors of the 48th Ekamra Walks visited Mukteswar, Parsurameswar, Kotitirtheswar, Swarnajaleswar, Bindusagar, Ananta Vasudev, Old Dharamshala, Lingaraj Temple, Chitrakarini, Sari, Mohini and medicinal plant garden, Ekamra Van.